Thursday, July 8, 2010

7/7/10: In defense of "Zombie"; A chronicle of HuffPost's pathological anti-Semitic bias in picture choices and editing

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Background: Bloggers and Web-surfers who support Israel and Jews hold “Zombie” in very, very high esteem. He/she regularly infiltrates, photographs and writes about demonstrations held by radical leftists and radical Islamists in the San Francisco area, in which overt anti-Semitic hate and libels are openly espoused (1, 2, 3, 4). (The photo at right was taken by "Zombie" at a January 2009 anti-Israel rally, here.)

Given all this, HUFF-WATCH is a big fan of "Zombie." And now, as he/she has raised a question that is drawing some fairly serious scorn, and as it deals with something we're uniquely qualified to comment on

==================.On July 5, "Zombie" published an article at PajamasMedia, entitled:

When I first saw the photo, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, because it looks like Netanyahu has neon devil horns growing out of his head. What the hell? Was the photo altered in some way? Or is it a “truth-o-graph” revealing Netanyahu’s true devilish nature? Turns out: No. The photo is an authentic AP photograph — or at least part of an authentic AP photograph — which was cleverly cropped by someone at Huffington Post to make it appear as if Netanyahu has devil horns — flaming neon devil horns, at that.

Most people aren't aware of the fact that Semites have been claiming for thousands of years that Jews are not even human --- that they are all demons and have devil's horns, as a justification for oppressing and murdering them; more here, here.

The caption of Egyptian newspaper cartoon at left --- one of thousands like this that have been employed by anti-Semites through time:

Ariel Sharon: “How do you like the holiday pastries (i.e., the skulls)? I made them myself!”[Al-Wafd, December 17, 2001]

A fair number of commenters agreed with "Zombie's" impression, and found it difficult to attribute HuffPost's photo-cropping to a mere accident.

Other commenters, however, alleged that "Zombie" is either incorrect...

Steven:"I don’t think there was anything deliberate there. It looks like they just cropped the photo from the top and the bottom without much thought, no biggie."

... or stupid...

Taylor Marsh (a fairly influential leftist blogger):"This is the most ridiculous post I’ve ever seen on the subject of the Middle East; the worst ever on Pajamas Media. Thanks for the chuckle."

... or is seeing anti-Semitism where there is none:

GMarks: "always the victims….. It gets old. This site is too kosher for my blood. And we wonder why people still harbor so much resentment? What other sliver of humanity has this kind of domination over conversation?"

We will never have definitive proof that HuffPost deliberately decided to crop the original photograph to make it look as if Netanyahu has horns growing out of his head.

But what we can do is to look at the hard facts at the root of two key questions:

(1) What cropping options did HuffPost have in regards to this picture, versus the choice it made?

(2) Is there anything in HuffPost's history that would show it has applied an anti-Semitic bias to the photos it chooses to run, and how it crops them?

By exploring these two questions, we'll be able to get a pretty good idea as to where the truth lies.

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(1) What cropping options did HuffPost have in regards to this picture, versus the choice it made?

The aspect ratio of photos on the center and right columns --- where HuffPost runs its "news" items --- is approximately 4x3, as indicated by the red grid we put over the image at lower right:

Here is the original photo that HuffPost accessed from the AP --- and the cropping it applied:

Granted, that is not exactly the best image to have behind a Jewish speaker, at a presumably Israeli locale. But that is not the question here. Rather, it is: Did HuffPost have other, reasonable options than to crop the photo in such a way that makes it appear as though Netanyahu has horns growing out of his head?

Well, let's put our red grid over Netanyahu's face, and see for ourselves.

Had HuffPost chosen one of these cropping options, here is what the photo would have looked like:

So, to return to the question that "Zombie" raised:"Did Huffington Post crop AP photo to give Netanyahu devil horns?" Based on what we've seen so far, it's pretty hard to come to that conclusion.

It's when we explore the second question, however, that a far more likely truth emerges.

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(2) Is there anything in HuffPost's history that would show it has applied an anti-Semitic bias to the photos it chooses to run, and how it crops them?

Before we answer this question, keep in mind the following quotes from Arianna Huffington (HuffPost's co-founder and Editor-In-Chief) regarding HuffPost’s allegedly nonpartisan journalistic principles. For full documentation, see Section A here:

“What we're doing is two things. We do news. I don't believe news is left wing or right wing. And then we do the group blog, which is going to be a dialogue from all viewpoints.”- May 6, 2005“The editorial stance of the Huffington Post is to debunk the right-left way of thinking, which has become completely obsolete."- November 14, 2007

“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”- July 29, 2008

“[Arianna Huffington] is offended and bewildered by the suggestion that other news outlets think she's getting a free ride. She sees herself as the future of journalism, not the end of it.”- March 19, 2009

“[W]e are increasingly seen ... as an Internet newspaper, not positioned ideologically in terms of how we cover the news.”- May 22, 2009

On March 12, 2007, HuffPost published a story on its front page entitled: "Israel Recalls Envoy After He's Found Outside Drunk, Naked And Tied Up." One problem - that's not the picture of the Israeli ambassador.

As documented here, HuffPost chose to invest its time to hunt down this very unusual, degrading photo --- instead of finding and using an actual photo of the ambassador.

EXAMPLE 3 --- 12/29/08: HuffPost runs photo-headline insinuating that Israel targeted and murdered a four year old Muslim girl because it she was "a symbol of Hamas power."On December 29, 2008, during Operation Cast Lead, HuffPost ran as its screaming front page headline, "Israeli Assault Targets Symbols Of Hamas Power," matched with the photo at right. The caption of the photo reads: "The father of Palestinian Dena Balosha, 4, left, one of five members of the same family including three children and two teenagers who were killed in an Israeli missile strike [...]."

This was the single most egregiously misleading and inflammatory headline and image that HuffPost employed throughout Cast Lead. HuffPost’s implication was that this little girl was "a symbol of Hamas Power," and that Israel mercilessly and maliciously struck her with deadly force.

For unknown reasons (perhaps because this was such a grievous, anti-Semitic libel), at some point after February 1, 2008, HuffPost changed the headline image of this thread. It could not, however, change the URL, which contains the original headline wording; see top and bottom here.

There are abundant, sinister-looking images of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Internet, that HuffPost could use to match with stories concerning his latest genocidal, anti-Semitic hate comments and threats:

However, HuffPost never uses these photos. Instead, no matter what he says or does, HuffPost almost invariably presents the most flattering images of him. Examples:

On June 3, 2009, HuffPost published a story on its front page, entitled Ahmadinejad: Holocaust A 'Big Deception' And here's the picture it chose to run with it --- a story of a madman denying the systematic slaughter of six million Jews:

As here's the alternative picture HuffPost chose to run with this story (which we named "shiny, happy Adolf, Jr."):

On June 14, 2009, HuffPost featured the following top-of-the-thread teaser. Check out the photos of these two arch-enemy Middle Eastern leaders, beside each other. If you didn't know better, which one would you think is a genocidal maniac, who had openly claimed a desire to exterminate a nation --- and which one is a benevolent, loving leader who swore to never let it happen?

Hamas has made repeated, explicit, genocidal threats against Israelis, and Jews worldwide. It has targeted and murdered Israeli civilians with bloody, savage regularity. It has claimed a divine mandate to destroy Israel, and murder all the Jews who currently live there. And abundant pictures are available on the Internet that depict its leader, Khaled Meshaal, in all his psychopathic glory:

But HuffPost never uses such photos to depict Hamas.

So when Meshaal made sounds that he might be interested in peace talks with Israel --- after all his talk of genocide --- and knowing that a key strategy of militant Islamism is to ask for a time-out to rest, re-arm and re-strategize (a "hudna"), which photo did HuffPost choose to run with the story?

After seeing all the above instances of how HuffPost consistently helps militant, murderous Islamists put their best, smiling faces forward, we now return to its practice of cropping photos of Jews to look as sinister as possible.

In this case, Sen. Lieberman dared to stand with a bipartisan group of other Senators, in opposition to the Democrats' healthcare takeover bill. Did HuffPost cover the other Senators? Nope. It focused all its wrath on Sen. Lieberman, via the following creative photo-editing to make him look as sinister as possible:... and HuffPost even created a special section on Sen. Lieberman's history of alleged "double-crosses" (another key facet of classic anti-Semitism is the libel that Jews cannot be loyal to anyone or anything) --- and again, made him look as sinister as possible, by cropping from his eyebrows to the bottom of his nose:

EXAMPLE 9 --- June 9, 2010: U.N. "sanctions" Iran over nuclear weapons; which picture of Ahmadinjead does HuffPost choose to run with the story?

It is on this basis that one may judge whether or not there is a strong likelihood that HuffPost also deliberately cropped the recent picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, as "Zombie's" essay suggested it may have done.

As for us, we contend that that the above evidence proves conclusively that HuffPost applies an egregious, deliberate, pathological anti-Semitic bias in picture choices and editing:

That when it is dealing with pictures of Jews or Israelis, they are often appear sinister, dark or malevolent-in the photos that HuffPost chooses to run, and how it edits them.

In contrast, when the photos are of Israel's antagonists, they are almost invariably appear as being positive, loving and benevolent

It is on this basis that we conclude it is more than likely that HuffPost's photo-editor knew exactly what he/she was doing, and decided to capitalize on the unfortunate pose in which the photographer had captured Netanyahu, to make it appear as if he has horns growing out of his head.And it is based on this pathology that we created our (satirical) "Ahmadinejad announces his love for Arianna Huffington," in which the Iranian madman expresses his gratitude for how HuffPost has relentlessly given him favorable coverage and protection over the years.

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If you are concerned about what you've seen here, and would like to make your voice known to HuffPost's management (politely, please), here's how.